Yesterday, I wrote a post about a Denver lawyer suing the Central Intelligence Agency over his request for copies of photos of Osama bin Laden’s corpse.

That post generated a few comments by readers but also apparently several nasty messages directly to the lawyer, Kevin Evans, questioning his motives for making the request. Evans felt compelled to respond in the comments section of the earlier post, and — after talking with him today — I thought I would highlight his response here.

In our conversation today, Evans wanted to make clear that he gave the CIA the option of providing just one of the photos he requested or of redacting sensitive information from the photos, but the CIA still turned him down.

Here was his response:

For those of you who consider me but a despicable lawyer or ambulance chaser (notwithstanding my firm’s website and my bio),and to the senders of the hate mail, allow me to explain my purpose. I (like Mossad) do not subscribe to the notion that one gains from a display of weakness. What I mean by that is that the “civilized” world has succumbed to the fear of retaliation by thugs and subhumans, so much so that God forbid anyone even publish a cartoon of Mohammad. Of course, it was perfectly acceptable for the goons in Mogadishu to display (repeatedly) the body of one of our Marine’s being dragged through that city’s streets, and for that to be replayed here in the States, but heaven forbid that the public be provided with even one photo of Bid Laden. Of course, Leon Panetta said at the time that at least some of the photos would be released, but then ….

Also, something you have not seen in the press is that I offered to accept ONE photograph OF THE CIA’s CHOOSING as long as someone in a position of authority at the CIA attested to the photo’s authenticity. I also agreed to a redaction of ANY information in the photo that might reveal a state secret. The lawyer for the CIA rejected my offer in less than 30 minutes.
Kevin Evans